What files do I need to run an Athena build?

In some folder, traditionally called org.eclipse.myproject/releng or org.eclipse.myproject.releng (but really, it can be anything), you need these files:

maps/*.map -- what to build (where to get sources) : can be CVS, SVN, or HTTP (eg., Orbit jars)

build.properties -- how to build

testing.properties -- what tests to run

build.xml -- boilerplate script for running the build in Eclipse, via commandline, or in Hudson

I also recommend having a .launch file which produces a log of your in-Eclipse build attempts so that when that log scrolls off the Console view, you can see what happened in the file.

And, if you want to make it easier for others to get your source, you can include psfs/*.psf files. Better, use build.steps=map2psf in your build.properties to generate .psfs from your map files.

My build complains it can't find java.lang.Object. Seriously, WTF?

Make sure you've set JAVA_HOME to a valid path, as well as these for every Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment ("BREE") defined in your plugins' MAANIFEST.MF files. If all your code is set to BREE 1.4, you only need a JAVA14_HOME; if you have a mix, include all that you use, such as JAVA50_HOME or JAVA60_HOME.

What are buildExtra.xml and testExtra.xml for?

These are optional.

If you have custom runtime requirements which cannot be configured using dependencyURLs or repositoryURLs in your build.properties, you can define additional fetching/unpacking steps here, for building or testing respectively.

If you have custom packaging steps (ie., you ship more than the default set of zips) you can also add packaging steps here.

${org.eclipse.test} not found?

1. Include "org.eclipse.test" and "org.eclipse.ant.optional.junit" plugins in your all-in-one tests feature (or to each test feature). This controls what plugins PDE will build.